Like all heat engines, turbine engines comprise parts which move relative to each other. To facilitate the operation of the turbine engine and prevent any damage to the parts, specifically caused by mutual friction, the parts have to be lubricated.
Lubrication is usually provided by viscous oil which covers the parts and enables a part to slide on another one, on the one hand, and the cooling, or at least no heating, of the parts, on the other hand.
The oil is contained in a tank built in a closed loop oil circuit which diffuses or projects oil onto the parts to be lubricated.
Knowing the quantity of oil (or the oil level) in the tank and thus in the lubrication system is important.
As a matter of fact oil in excess in the lubrication system may generate oil overpressure in the turbine engine, at the risk of damaging same. Similarly, a lack of oil in the lubrication system may cause an incorrect lubrication of the parts which move relative to each other and the heating of such parts which might result in the breaking of such parts or of a local fusion weld (caused by overheating).
A control device which can indicate, in real time, the quantity of oil is knowingly used to know the level of oil in the tank.
Such a control device more particularly comprises a float floating at the surface of oil and includes a magnetic element. The float moves along a magnetic card which comprises contactors which interact with the magnetic element of the float, with such card being connected to a system which converts the reaction of the contactors into information which a flight engineer or a pilot of an aircraft for instance can understand. Thus, when the oil level in the tank changes, the float opens or closes contactors and the pilot and/or the flight engineer can know the quantity of oil in the lubrication system.
Within the scope of the development of new small size turbine engines, the oil tanks have a smaller and smaller radius of curvature.
Similarly, some modifications in the architecture of turbine engines may provide for the movement of oil tanks in one area of the engine, for instance a «core» zone wherein the space is reduced, specifically the radius of curvature, relative to the initial location of the oil tanks. Modifying the oil tanks is then required, specifically by reducing the radius of curvature thereof.
The control devices which are generally substantially straight or which are slightly curved thus cannot be used in the tanks of the new turbine engines or in the modified tanks. As a matter of fact, the geometry thereof does not make it possible to mount or dismount same in the tank, in the small space around the tank when the latter is mounted in a turbine engine.
Adapting a known control device to the shape of a tank having a small radius of curvature would entail too high a cost and would not solve the above-mentioned dismounting issue.